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Letter: Time for RCW to get real

Refer to the Aug. 22 issue of the West Central Tribune. Two front-page articles:

- Rice Hospital to lay off 13 people and cut two programs. These are critical programs (the Rice Diabetes and Nutrition Center and the Heart Failure Clinic).

- Hormel third-quarter profit falls 9 percen due to higher costs.

Let's get real, Renville County West. If large operations like these are having problems, how can anyone possibly think that our area will grow, especially with the declining enrollment which in actual figures has fallen from 827 to 495 in eight years. What kind of big industry is coming to Renville in the near future to justify spending $35 million for a new school?

Every one of us feels that our families are the most important thing in our life. Are we being fair to them if we saddle the district and them with an expenditure that can never be paid for? For many families it will be all they can do to keep up as the cost of living keeps rising every day. The Danube school building should never have been closed. It was in the best shape of the three. But this was the first step leading to the need to build a new school.

As far as the repairs needed to the present Renville building, these should have been done as the need arose, not wait until you feel you need to destroy the building.

With the proposed expenditure of $35 million, only property owners should be allowed to vote, since they are the ones that will be paying for it.

Our small school districts need to begin to work together. With larger numbers of students, more class options and extracurricular activities could be offered and there would be enough students to participate